Promises Kept Are Easily Broken
by TheNewIdea
Summary: Hank has always been alone. Never once has he had someone real, who was always there. Now it seems he has that chance when Charles gives him a gift, a gift that will change his life forever. Rated T for angst, romantic drama, sexual references and language.


The minute I saw you the world instantly became a little brighter. It was as if everything that was ever me, all that I am was changed. There is not a single word that could describe how I feel about you, how I feel about us, that in this moment, here and now, we are the only people in the world who matter. I'm going to tell you something and I want you to listen and listen close. I love you, as soon as I heard your voice again it was like a breath of fresh air. I'll never get a chance to ask this again so I'm going to ask you now. Will you marry me?

These are the words that escaped the mind of Beast, better known as Hank, heard only by Mystique through a mind link courtesy of Charles Xavier as they both were fighting for their lives as they orbited the Moon. As Mystique looked out into the escape pod bay through a small window in the blast doors, she could see Beast smiling and playfully flashing his teeth. "Hank" she said, hoping that the mind link was still working, "Of course I will. Now come back to me, open the door and come back to me." Beast sighed, it was deep and longing, "I wish I could" he replied, "Oh you don't know how much I want to. Just to hold you again would be a blessing in itself." Beast stared at the escape pod that was next to him, inside of it was a bomb that threatened to blow up the Moon which would create an apocalyptic disaster for Earth, easily wiping out all of humanity.

Mystique and Beast looked at each other, their stares in complete understanding on what was about to happen. Beast looked inside the escape pod and noticed that bomb had five minutes until denotation, plenty of time. Beast, still using the mind link, started first, "Do you take me to be your lawfully wedded husband till five minutes from now when I blow up in a fiery inferno in space?" Mystique smiled, laughing to herself at the joke and nodded, "And do you take me to be your lawfully wedded wife til death?" Beast returned Mystique's smile and walked over to the window, "You may now kiss the bride" Beast finished before both of them pressed their lips against the glass, each of them wanting it to shatter in a million pieces if only to touch each other once again.

Beast then walked away, put on a spacesuit and opened the lockdown doors to space before getting in the escape pod and piloting it to a safe distance as the minutes counted down to seconds.

Two Years Earlier...

Hank McCoy was sitting in his lab alone, like he did every other day. At the moment, Hank wanted nothing more than to stop thinking and simply sit in peace, but that was becoming more and more difficult. Every time Hank would stop working his mind would always go back to his first and final transformation into the big, furry monster like being that he now was. He could remember the pain; he could feel his claws growing longer, sharper with each passing second. Hank's thoughts became angry, angry at himself for allowing this to happen, angry at the world for not accepting him for what he was to begin with.

To suppress these thoughts and pains Hank allowed himself to go feral four times per month, he was now at the beginning of his fourth time round. As a precaution, Hank locked himself in his lab and closed the window on the door with the specially designed blast door he had made exactly for this purpose. Sitting at his desk, Hank began to brood, focusing his thoughts on his memories, his pain, everything that had happened to him. He allowed his anger to take full control and then Hank become feral.

During these feral episodes, Hank would do three things. The first is destroying everything in sight in his lab, this took all of about two minutes for the tangible items, but he didn't stop there. Hank ripped out the floor and ceiling tiles, throwing them across the room in random directions. The second thing that Hank would do is cut himself, serving as a false emotional outlet for pain. The final thing would be an hour long, uninterrupted masturbation session to satisfy Hank's lack of personal intimacy and poor social skills in general. After all these things were done, Hank would scream as loud as he possibly could before collapsing on the floor, physically and emotionally spent.

Charles Xavier opened the door to Hank's lab to find Hank passed out on the floor. Charles only sighed and wheeled his way over, gently petting his friend as if he were a giant dog, "I know" Charles said softly, "the pain becomes too much sometimes. But you can't keep living like this Hank, alone. No one was born alone and no one should die alone. Sadly, for most of us that is not the case. Too often mutants die that way...alone. I promise you, I will not let that happen." Charles then turned and exited the lab.

The next day, Hank was sitting in the study across from a classroom full of recently arrived mutants, learning to use their abilities. At the moment, the teacher of the day was Wolverine, who only rambled on and on about himself and never really taught much of anything that any of them could actually use. Hank refused to teach, mostly because in truth he wasn't good at it and was in no way a people person like Wolverine claimed to be. No, Hank preferred to spend his days in his lab, but since it was destroyed and it took about a day and a half to fix, he resorted to the study.

Colossus came into the room, followed by Nightcrawler and Jean Grey. All three of them had previous relationships with Hank, in the case of Colossus and Nightcrawler it was in the form of an elite group known as The Horsemen, which disbanded two years prior when Colossus attacked Nightcrawler and wounded Hank. In the case of Jean Grey, it was romantic. But due to complications, Hank's mutation and Jean starting to develop feelings for Scott; it was ultimately an inevitable breakup. Hank seeing this, decided to end the relationship before he could give his heart a chance to break.

"What are you doing here?" Hank asked, turning to all three of them with a face of utter disdain, "We're worried about you" Jean answered, "Is something wrong?" Hank huffed and looked out the window towards the yard, "Not like you would care Jean" Hank replied, "What am I, a Beast right?" Jean sighed, "You broke the relationship Hank. Not me." Hank laughed in response, "You're just as guilty as me. You loved Scott all along didn't you? So why even bother carrying on with me?" Jean sighed again, this time heavier, "Because I felt sorry for you Hank. Sorry that you're always alone, that you never had what you desperately wanted." Hank rolled his eyes and stood up as he began to pace around the room, "And you thought that dating me would make it better? Really Jean I am disappointed, and here I thought it was because deep down inside you were actually capable of having feelings for anyone else other than Scott. But I guess I was wrong wasn't I? You're nothing but a cold, heartless bitch, incapable of any human emotion or feeling! I bet the real reason you carried on with me was because you were ashamed, yes that part is true, but you did it to clear your own conscious and save your own skin. You never cared for me at all, you're just like everyone else in this goddamn mansion, a dirty, rotten bastard!" Jean started to say something in reply but Hank only pointed to the door, "Leave me alone" he replied, "All of you!"

Jean and Nightcrawler nodded and exited the room, Colossus stayed behind. "I'm sorry Hank" Colossus said, his eyes cast down in shame, "Is there any chance of us restarting the Horsemen?" Hank growled at the mentioning of the name, "Don't ever say that again, do you hear me? Never again!" Colossus could see the rage in Hank's eyes; obviously this wasn't the time to ask such questions for Hank was now more angry than usual and would needed another feral trip to calm him down. "Okay Hank" Colossus continued, "I won't mention it ever again...I hope we can still be friends." Hank's nostrils were flaring, his anger was at its peak "Get Wolverine and Storm" Hank commanded, "In two seconds I'm going to destroy everything in this room, then I'm going to run out into the hallway and kill the first person I can find. They need to stop me." Colossus stared at him with confusion, Hank's eyes turned blood red, his mind no longer capable of rational thought as he picked up the nearest bookshelf and threw it out the window.

Colossus ran into the next room as Hank finished the destruction of the study, "Wolverine!" he yelled, "It's Beast...Hank...he's out of control." Wolverine unsheathed his claws and ran out into the hallway. Storm was at the top of the stairs by the time Wolverine got there, Hank was in front of her, in his right hand was Gambit, who was struggling to break free as Hank began choking him to death. Storm tried to reason with Hank. "Hank" she began, "listen to me, this isn't you. Stop this right now." Hank only laughed and shook his head, his fangs flashing and gleaming with saliva, "Hank! There is no Hank...there is only Beast. It's what I am. Hank is dead!"

Wolverine came up behind Beast and jammed his right set of claws into Beast's lower back, Beast however said and did nothing. "Ha!" Beast cried as he squeezed harder on Gambit's neck, "It's going to take more than that Logan. I'm angry...so very angry." Storm, in response, spread her arms out, creating a small wind storm and hurled it towards Beast, who only backed away as a result. Wolverine ran over to Beast's front and tried once again to reason with him, "Hank!" Wolverine screamed over the wind, as it was still circling throughout the room, "Let me help you. We can work this out...together, like we've always done." Beast shook his head, "Only one person can help me now" he replied, "and that person isn't you!" Beast used all of his strength, applying it to Gambit's neck, killing Gambit and making his neck look like a dried up, bottleneck skinny prune. Wolverine turned towards Colossus, "Get X! Do it now!" Before Colossus could move, Charles pulled up behind him and turned towards Beast.

Placing his right hand on his head, Charles spoke inside Beast's mind, "Control...Breathe in and out...You are angry. Angry at the world, at yourself, you feel unloved and yet you are surrounded by an army of friends. But you seek a different kind of love, a love of passion, a love of desire, physical, personal intimacy." Beast became relaxed but his eyes remained red and he continued to breath in through his nostrils sporadically. "Let me in Beast" Charles continued, "Why do you call me Beast?" Beast asked, ending the monologue and joining a private conversation. Charles moved closer, Beast's breathing slowed. "If you say Hank is dead, than Hank is dead" Charles answered, "now let me in, so that I can help you." Beast shook his head, "I'm not sure you can" he replied sadly, "No one can." Charles pushed a button on his wheelchair, raising the chair up to Beast's eye level, "At least let me try" Charles persisted.

Beast nodded reluctantly and Charles broke the mind link only to set him up with another. In an instant Beast could hear the words of woman, someone who Beast thought was dead for the better part of four years. _"Soon the world will be ours. The Brotherhood will see a new age, a new birth of purity, and it's all thanks to Erik."_ As soon as Beast heard the voice he immediately started crying and buried his hands in his face, for he had nothing else to do. "Raven" he said softly, "Raven...Raven." Beast got down on one knee and felt Gambit, his body limp and lifeless, he stopped crying and had only a face of shock and disbelief.

Looking up at Charles and Wolverine, Beast only had to show his face for Wolverine to give his answer, "You went feral and killed him. He's dead, Gambit is dead." Storm walked over and gently rubbed Beast's back who began to shed new tears, these of mourning and loss, "What have I done?" he asked to no one in particular and not wanting an answer, "Murder" Beast replied answering his own question, "I committed murder." Beast glared at Charles and bowed his head solemnly, "I ask that you kill me Professor, as punishment for my actions and to end the pain that my life has caused me." Charles shook his head and lifted Beast's head up to meet his eyes, "I cannot do that Beast. I'm sorry. I know how much you want it, but Gambit's death was an accident. Even if it was intentional, the worst thing I could do would be to banish you from this mansion never to return...and I won't do that either." Beast stared at him with confusion, "Why?" he asked, "Send me away, far away, to another city, another country! Someplace where I can't hurt anyone ever again...Please Charles, I beg of you." Charles only walked away, saying nothing.


End file.
